Crimson Sigma Faculty
Our Expert Leadership
Insight and instruction from innovators in the field
Dianna Smith, MBA, Six Sigma Master Black Belt
Dianna is Chief Operating Officer and part owner of Donald E. Smith Associates, Inc. She is a multi-talented consultant and senior management leader with more than 30 years of experience working in the industry and is an energetic individual whose expertise in understanding and managing the dynamics of change has saved companies millions of dollars. Dianna is skilled at applying Six Sigma and Total Quality Management principles to corporate process-improvement initiatives and meeting facilitation, interventions, project management, team participation, strategic planning, training development and delivery. Dianna delivers Six Sigma Process Improvement courses, both Green Belt and Black Belt; Champions Training; and numerous leadership courses. She provides application support and coaching for projects. Companies that she has worked with include BBVA Compass Bank, NCR, First Data Resources, First Data Merchant Services, Corning, Longaberger, Color Spot, TRW, KPMG, BellSouth Telecommunications, Jefferson State Community College, and others.
Dianna is adept at applying Six Sigma and Total Quality Management principles to corporate process-improvement initiatives and process re-engineering teams, delivering courses on how to understand and manage the dynamics of change and providing consultation on meeting facilitation, interventions, performance improvement, process improvement, project management, strategic planning, team participation, and training development and delivery. Dianna successfully negotiated with the U.S. EPA regarding environmental self-disclosure issues, resulting in a cost avoidance of several million dollars. She led a massive re-engineering effort to outsource non-core processes for a large telecommunications company resulting in $22 million saved.
Dianna holds an MBA from The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She graduated cum laude from UAB with a degree in business management and is a member of both Golden Key National Honor Society and the Beta Gamma Sigma National Business Honor Society. She studied statistical methods for quality improvement at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Dianna was selected as one of 2,000 Notable American Women in 1996 and received the 2007 Teaching Excellence Award from The University of Alabama’s College of Continuing Studies. In 2008 she became one of the first to be certified in The Great Discovery, Coach and Facilitator, The Fourth Generation of Six Sigma.
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